Newsletter of the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center

December 7, 2016January 6, 2017

From the Executive Director…

We at the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center have been supporting and praying for the Water Protectors at the Oceti Sakowin Camp these past few of months. In our open letter/statement we called for the community to acknowledge the relationship between extractive industries and increased incidents of violence against women in communities impacted by extractive industries, and further, to hold perpetrators and industries accountable for these violent crimes. One of our current endeavors includes linking extractive industries to violence against Native women. We partnered with Liveyourdream.org, who recently published an article I wrote titled “Oil Development (DAPL) & Violence Against Native Women.” We continue to send our support and prayers to the Water Protectors and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

This 2016 Winter edition of Advocate! Beyond the Shelter Doors newsletter includes: a welcome to our new board member Wanette Lee and staff Kaycee Sherrard; heartfelt congratulations on awards received by NIWRC staff Gwendolyn Packard and Princella RedCorn; along with updates on our NativeLove youth program, the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center, winter awareness month activities, our new journalist resource page on covering violence against Native women, guest contributor Molly Ryan-Kills Enemy and her views on advocacy, and a special Speaker’s Bureau spotlight on Rebecca Nagle and her work honoring survivors or rape and abuse at the Oceti Sakowin Camp.

In response to the changing political climate and our mission to be of service to those advocating for domestic violence survivors, we have an expanded Wellness Circle section which includes NIWRC’s message of hope, an article from Norine Hill, Executive Director of Native Women in Need, and a personal essay from Rebecca Balog, NIWRC’s Grants Compliance Manager.

In the new Featured Art section, we share videos from Native filmmaker Erica Tremblay who aims to amplify the voices of Native women in her work and the trailer for “The Hunting Ground”, a documentary exposing the reality of rape crimes on U.S. college campuses. The Featured Art section is where we share art forms as a means of social change including new documentaries or films, art exhibits and positive/uplifting projects connecting to domestic or family violence. Suggestions welcome!
As always, we are grateful to be a part of this shared continued work in such a robust and fulfilling movement.